As a real lover of hot cross buns, I salute this fine food journalism effort by Kate at the Eating Melbourne blog. I only wish I'd thought of doing it first (especially as I like eating hot cross buns so much.) She had a bunch of her friends around to do a blind test, too — now that is dedication to the scientific cause.

And the winner is… Natural Tucker in Melbourne, apparently. The bun does look yummy. Personally I think my mum's are still the best I've ever tasted, especially because she makes the cross on top out of real pastry which you can pick off and eat separately in strips, as opposed to this flour-n-water mix that commercial bakeries seem to use. (Or plaster of paris and liquid cement, in the case of Coles.)

Image credit: Kate at eatingmelbourneblog.com